America Invests in N.C. Estuaries - Jobs Restored

Coastal North Carolina is getting a $5 million slice of federal stimulus funding to restore its oyster reefs and fisheries economy.

Contractors, barge workers, truck drivers and many other coastal residents are being paid through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to plant oyster shell and limestone marl, which form the foundations for new oyster reefs.

Simon Rich III is the general manager of Stevens Towing Company, which was contracted to ship tons of limestone from New Bern to Hatteras. Here, Rich explains how the stimulus funding helped him rehire some of his crew.

The project is led by the N.C. Coastal Federation with the help of N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. Sea Grant research, including work funded by the N.C. Fishery Resource Grant, helped determine the new reef locations and designs.

To learn more, go to: http://www.ncseagrant.org/home/about-ncsg/news-events?task=showArticle&id...

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News & Politics

Tags:

• North Carolina Sea Grant
• oysters
• oyster reefs
• Pamlico Sound
• North Carolina
• Fishery Resource Grant
• FRG
• NC Coastal Federation
• federal stimulus
• Dare County
• OBX
• Hatteras
• Buxton
• Outer Banks
• commercial fishermen
• NOAA
• cultch planting
• oyster metapopulations
• Crassostrea virginica
• reef fishing